After sweeping Seattle, the Nats get swept by the Twins

One thing you can say about Interleague play is it’s unpredictable, as is the Nats 2008 season. Injuries have truly derailed what was a solid streak for the Nationals in May and mid early June. The pitching staff has disintegrated and the leadership, bat, and swagger in the field Ryan Zimmerman provides has left a hole in this young team. Let’s take a look at who’s playing well, who’s playing worse, and who is making no progress what so ever.

Over the last 6 games

Jesus Flores-COLD- Flores has only gone 5/22 in the last two series which comes out to a .227 batting average. One worry with Flores’ early success was that it was just a fluke in a small sample size, and with his struggles recently this may be coming true. Other explanations for his lack of success recently could be as simple as him just being a young hitter who doesn’t know why he is in a slump. He may also be having trouble facing pitchers he’s never seen before in the American League. It’s a little too early to panic, but Flores bat is a key to the Nats success.

Ronnie Belliard-cool-Belliard has produced better then his pre disabled list self, however in the last six games he has stalled a bit. He is only 5/20 (.250) in the last two series, however he does have three extra base hits. His return to adequacy is good news for the Nats as it ads depth and options to an otherwise depleted line up.

Cristian Guzman-HOT!- Good news, Guzman is playing his best baseball as the trading season approaches. In the last six games Guzman is 10/27 (.370) with yes, ONE WALK. Disregarding the poor defense and relatively empty batting average, Guzman is looking real good right now for a team like the Red Sox, Rays(who have prospects up the Wazoo), or Angels.

Elijah Dukes-Hot- In the last two series he is 9/25(.360) with four runs scored. It was not long ago when Dukes was batting below .100, and he has battled his batting average to be back at .241 with an OBP of .353, one of the best on the team. He is really coming into his own, and if he keeps his attitude straight, may soon be a star in the District.

Shawn Hill-COLDEST, or maybe just inured- He just flat out should not be pitching. In his last two starts he has let up 22 hits, 10 earned runs, and four walks. This is our, “Ace.” What are the Nationals thinking? His arm is not fully healed, and at this point in the season, 12.5 games back, after several managers have already been fired, its pretty much time to start packing it in for the season. Hill should rest.

By the bat of Jesus, Nats win 6-4

After a visit to the dentist Odalis Perez was ready to wash and rinse the Nationals of their short losing streak. Perez had stayed up all night Tuesday with a painful toothache, on no sleep he was taken to a local dentist who preformed a four hour root canal Wednesday morning. Seven hours later, woozy and a little doped up, Perez was on the mound in PETCO Park.

Six and a third innings later Perez was pitching on the better end of a 6-2 lead. Manny Acta let his soldier come off the mound, he had battled, and he had given his team a chance to win. A win is something that has been hard to come by for Odalis this season, despite pitching well through most of the year, but this one was certainly well earned. After an ugly relief appearance by Sanches and three solid innings from Ayala and Rauch, the Nats came out on top 6-4.

Jesus Flores is young and talented; Paul Lo Duca is old and scrappy

Jesus Flores again showed Washington Nationals fans why he is a center block in the building of this young team. With the bases loaded last night in the fourth inning, Flores did something that his team has had trouble doing all year, converted with runners in scoring position. With one swing of the bat he put his team up 4 and recorded his first career grand slam.

It was an excellent overall game for Flores, he tossed out the Padres Tadahito Iguchi on the base paths, displaying an arm that scouts have been a fan of for some time. He finished 2-4 with a single to go with his grand slam. What makes Flores so exciting is that he is refining his tools so much faster then anybody imagined he could, and he’s doing it in the majors no less. He is already more patient then most of the Nationals batters, he’s already better defensively at his position then most of the Nationals, and he is currently using his bats better then anyone on the Nationals.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the sample size of Flores’ success this year is still small…but it keeps growing…

PETCO Park, home run friendly?

No….no it’s not. It’s actually one of the worst home run ball parks in the nation; to the point in fact that it has deterred many power hitters from going to southern California in free agency. It just is home to an RFK like outfield, some argue even bigger. However, over this series there have already been six home runs through the first two games.

This is good for the Nationals line up, who couldn’t score a run to save their life merely a few weeks ago. Lastings Milledge has been killing the ball, Aaron Boone has shown to be a good source of power, and those doubles from Flores may soon be turning into home runs. This however is a bad thing for the Nationals pitching staff. The bullpen has been allowing many home runs over the course of the last several weeks, which is a sign of mistakes. Mistakes are a sign of over use, and over use is the sign of Matt Chico…

Box Score

Photos Courtesy of AP/Lenny Ignelzi

Nats lose 4-3, Split series 2-2

The Nats lost a heartbreaker today. Despite the great efforts of the reformed Jason Bergmann, and despite come from behind heroics by the big teddy bear Dmitri Young the Nats couldn’t come out on top. In the end it was a few stupid plays that led to the Nats coming out on the tieing the 4 game series, and out on top.

Some Thoughts:

Bergmann pitched great despite the Nats loss. He went five and two thirds without allowing an earned run and only let up four hits. He also recorded eight strikeouts with only one walk. This outing extended his scoreless streak to 19.2 innings without an earned run allowed, all of which have been recorded since his call up from Columbus. A similar situation to Bergmann’s can be seen in Cincinnati with arguably the best pitcher in the National League this season Edinson Volquez. Volquez struggled greatly in 2006 and 2007 as a talented pitcher who couldn’t seem to put it together. He however attributes his new found focus that has made him a true ace (7-2, 1.31 ERA) to his end of the season demotion to triple last year.

Jesus Flores is making a serious argument for himself to be the full time Nationals Catcher, despite his youth and inexperience. After going 2-4 today with yet another double, Flores is batting .340 with a .463 OBP and a .561 Slugging percentage. These numbers would impress a lot of scouts for a 23 year old catcher in even triple A, much less the majors. His power is developing faster then most would have expected with such little minor league experience and his plate patience is the best on the Nats active roster. 14 of his 33 outs this season have come from strikeouts. At first glance this is troubling that his strikeout rate is so high, but when you counter it with how well he is getting on base you realize a different potential. To put it simply, when Flores puts the ball in play, almost half the time it’s a hit. He is currently batting .460 on balls put in play (BaBIP). It’s a small sample size still, but it’s getting more and more promising.

This is the second game in a row that the first pitch from Saul Rivera has turned into a devastating RBI. I figured out why after the first one, I’m kind of surprised the Nats didn’t pick it up themselves. Saul is a fastball pitcher; he gets ahead in the count, changes locations, and often gets batters out. However when he throws first pitch fastballs to fastball hitters, such as Mike Cameron and Gape Kapler, its no mystery that they’re going to jump all over it. Saul needs to change it up, or he will keep getting burned in clutch situations.

Box Score

Photos courtesy of AP/Lawrence Jackson

Nats rally around Lannans arm, win 2-1

John Lannan may be young, but he’s not stupid. The pitcher who has played above his projected ability, and above his experience level all season long showed today that he also is mature beyond his years. Knowing the responsibility was on his 23 year old shoulders to stop the 4 game winning streak of the Orioles and to avoid the sweep, he came off his worst performance of the year and delivered a gem. They say one of the key jobs of an ace is to be a stopper by ending a losing streak before it gets out of control, Lannan filled the role today.

Lannan tossed seven and a third beautiful innings this afternoon, letting up only 5 hits and one earned run. He did an excellent job of locating all of his pitches and forcing ground balls. Out of 24 outs recorded, Lannan produced 11 ground ball outs and 5 K’s while letting up only one walk. That Nats fans, is how you win a game while only scoring 2 runs.

On the other side of the hill, former first round pick for the O’s, Jeremy Guthrie, also had himself a great day, allowing only five hits and only one earned run through seven innings. However for a change the Nats were able to turn their quiet bats into runs as they showed good patience against a good pitching performance. Washington drew 6 walks in comparison to only two strikeouts which allowed them to put that extra run on the board over the O’s.

Wil Nieves + Jesus Flores > Paul Lo Duca + Johnny Estrada

The sample size is still small, but it’s getting larger and larger every game and it’s becoming more and more evident that Flores and Nieves are the best catchers on this team. Damn the contracts and the big names, Nieves and Flores are playing like they want to be on the Nationals, as opposed to having to play for the Nationals. Lo Duca and Estrada are both former all stars, but its clear their careers are coming to a close and this is the only place they were offered a Major League job. The baseball gods are telling us something with these injuries, let the kids play.

Jesus Flores Season Stats: .367 BA (11/30), .500 OBP, 1.133 OPS
Wil Nieves Season Stats: .310 BA (13/42), .385 OBP, .788 OPS
Lo Duca Season Stats: .200 BA (10/50), .298 OBP, .558 OPS
Johnny Estrada Stats: .179 BA (7/39), .220 OBP, .298 OPS

Record with:
Nieves at catcher 7-8
Flores at catcher 3-8
Lo Duca at catcher 6-11
Estrada at catcher: 5-5, 4 broken clubhouse chairs

Game Notes:

Nick “Stone Cold” Markakis did not have a great game from the plate, but he did show Nationals fans his franchise talent from the field today gunning out two runners from right field ( Elijah Dukes twice). It’s players like Markakis, who always bring something to the table, that make Nats fans really frustrated with the disappointment of Austin Kearns, who brings nothing.

Going 0-2 today with 2 walks, Aaron Boone stopped his mini hit streak, but did continue his on base streak to 7 games.

GUZMAN WATCH: Guzman has a good game today and actually aided in a Nats winning effort. Guzman went 2-3 with 2 RBI’s and a solo homer. He also had a sacrifice bunt! Trade value: rising.

Question: Do you think the marlins would trade Austin Kearns for 1$?

(picture above is lucky jarmes behind an angry nats fan at camden yards)

Box Score

Photos courtesy of AP/Nick Wass

Nats take the O out of Odalis, give him his first win

The Nats traveled north today to try and end a three game skid by facing the New York Mets at Shea. Things finally went well for the red white and blue, as Odalis Perez helped his own cause going 3 for 3 at the plate en route to the Nats topping the Mets 10-4. On a cold and extremely windy night in New York, play for both teams was far from perfect, however the scrappy Nationals team was able to keep focus the longest and make the fewest amount of mistakes.

It was an important win for the club who has cooled down incredibly in May after a hot second half of April. With the win tonight the Nats moved to 5-5 this month, continuing to succeed in the struggle of becoming a .500 team. The Nationals will make their runs and have their cold streaks, but I think a great goal for this club would be to finish at 82-82. The ability to win the gut check games like tonight shows mentally the team is strong enough to hopefully reach that goal.

Odalis Perez does it all

“We might take the O out of Odalis tonight,” Don Sutton.

In his last outing The Nats Blog blasted Odalis Perez for his unfocused play. He had mental lapses in the field, at the bat, and on the mound. Odalis more then made up for it tonight. On a night where an unfocused starter would destroy a teams chances to win, Perez locked in and did everything he could to minimize inevitable mistakes and control the pace of the game. Perez went 6 1/3rd innings and allowed 4 earned runs. He let up 11 hits but only walked two and was able to keep the many Mets base runners from scoring.

Odalis earned his long overdue first win of the year tonight, and he did everything in his power to do so. Perez helped the Nats out by leading the team in hits, going 3-3 with 2 RBI’s, a vast improvement from a guy who struggled getting a sacrifice bunt down in his last start. All I can say is this win was a long time coming, Perez had led the Nats in quality starts this season and couldn’t get any run support. He got plenty tonight.

Jesus loves the majors

When the Nats took Flores from the Mets in the Rule 5 Draft, few expected him to stay in Washington. Flores was a young catcher who didn’t have much experience in the minors, and many believed he wasn’t ready to spend a whole year in the big leagues which he would be required to by Rule 5 Draft regulations. Flores however exceeded expectations in 2006, starting 42 games and playing very solid defense for an oft injured Brian Schneider. After weathering the year in the majors he was officially a member of the Washington Nationals for good, and the Nats planned to stick him in triple A to let the kid develop into a future star.

Things didn’t quite go as planned. After acquiring several new veteran catchers to fill the back up and starting roles on the big league club, they did what 30 year old catchers do, get hurt. Flores was forced to start the season in the majors and excelled. He was playing to stay in the majors, and was playing at a level to deserve it. Sadly as the politics of baseball go, when Lo Duca and Estrada got healthy Flores was demoted to Columbus. While the reason isn’t clear, the catcher who was hitting well over .300 in the majors was only hitting .180 in the minors. Was it an attitude problem? Was it apathy? No one knew.

However with injuries to the Nats old catchers again Flores found himself starting tonight at Shea stadium and started to produce like Major League Jesus and not Triple A Jesus. Tonight he went 1-3 with 2 runs and 2 RBI’s en route to helping the Nats win. He also threw out a stealing Jose Reyes who actually had a great break off of Odalis Perez. Does this mean he needs to stay in the majors? No, its just one game, but it does mean the Nats front office should take a deeper look at his level of development before shipping him back to the Midwest anytime soon.

GUZMAN WATCH

Cristian did not have a good game tonight. He did however smack a meaningless double in the top of the 8th to stop an 0-6 night. This doesn’t really matter for our purposes as most of Guzman’s stats are meaningless. He did however have a good play in the field after Zimmerman speared a line drive into the air, which Guzman fielded and was able to get to first before the runner could reach the bag. Meaningless hits and highlights, the key ingredients to trade bait!!!

Minor League Monday

Columbus Clippers
Jesus Flores- Jesus is not playing very heavenly. After getting the bump to the minors for Johnny Estrada many people were not very happy, myself included. The only silver lining was Flores could have some time to play everyday and develop in Columbus. Since his demotion he is hitting only .231 in the minors with 13 K’s in 39 at bats. He’s striking out 33% of the time! He was hitting .364 in the majors! I can’t explain it, maybe it’s a cold slump, maybe it’s a bad attitude about being demoted. Whatever it is, he better pick it up.

Harrisburg Senators
Luke Montz-Montz is a 24 year old catcher still in double A, he is trying to change that. In the last 10 games Montz is batting .412 with three homers and 15 RBI’s. Overall he is batting .373 with five homers and 23 RBI’s with a ridiculous OPS of 1.126. Right now Montz is simply on fire, he is on the fringe of prospect status but he’s getting a little bit old. Even if he did get the call up to triple A today he would still have to out play Jesus Flores just to get a chance in the majors.


Hagerstown Suns
Michael Burgess-Burgess hit four homers this week as his stock as a prospect skyrocketed. In 23 games in low A ball this season Burgess has 8 homers and 17 RBI’s. He combines incredible power with a good overall athletic frame that allows him to play solid defense in the outfield. With 27 strikeouts, and a batting average of only .253, Burgess has a lot of developing to do. However at only the age of 19, his power is proving to many why he is one of the best power hitting prospects in the minors.

Estrada, Wily Mo, and The Chief rejoin the club as Bergman and Flores are sent to Columbus

Johnny Estrada, Wily Mo Pena and Chad Cordero were all absent during the Nats 9 game losing streak. Bowden and Acta are hoping these now healthy veterans can help turn things around. Whether this is supposed to serve as a motivator or a legitimate baseball move isn’t clear, but it seems to be helping a little considering the Nats are up right now 5-0 in the 6th…scratch that….as I type this it is now 5-2 in the 6th with a Chipper homer.

Wily Mo Pena- Wily Mo will bring tremendous power to a line up that has been missing it so far this season. It will also keep the players cool with how often he will fan. Regardless of whose spot he may be taking, Wily Mo is young, talented, and a full season should be interesting to watch.

Chad Cordero- Having Cordero back on the club will obviously be a positive for the team. Of course if he pitches well the trade rumors will come out again, I know the Tigers have expressed interest with him. Whether or not to trade him we will deal with when the time comes, but for now its good to have the Chief back at the end of the bullpen totem poll.

Johnny Estrada- I’m still confused why he’s anywhere in the Nats system. The Nationals picked him up with worries of losing Lo Duca in the Mitchell Report fall out, which we now know wont happen. As a result we have three catchers in our system; former but over the hill all stars Paul Lo Duca and Johnny Estrada, and the young, possibly future all star Jesus Flores. I got a chance to watch Estrada at a Columbus Clippers game earlier this week, he is overweight and unproductive, and right now he is blocking major league playing time for a future major player in our franchise.

The Dearly Demoted- As evident in his last outing against the Braves Bergman was struggling. He started the season in the rotation, and was thrown into an almost surprise relief appearance yesterday afternoon. Whether Bergman is deserving of this demotion so early in the season or if he is simply a scapegoat for Bowden is up to interpretation, the bottom line however is Cordero is much more valuable coming out of the pen then Bergman.
Jesus Flores going down is frustrating. It was a gamble last year taking a young catcher and putting him in the big leagues for a whole season in order to keep him with accordance to Rule 5. It paid off though as Flores exceeded expectations and played very competently where many felt he was in over his head. For Flores this season it is really an argument in philosophy. Some feel giving him an entire year to get experience playing every day in Columbus will be more valuable to him then sitting in the majors. Others believe letting him start 30% of the games behind Lo Duca in Washington with the possibility to move into the starting role with an inevitable injury may help him become more acclimated to the major league game. It looks however that the Nats are putting their chips on the first philosophy, we’ll see how he does in Columbus.

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Nationals lose 9th straight, fall to the Braves at home

It’s a sad note that I am starting this blog on the night the Nats set a mark for their worst losing streak since coming to Washington. The season had started so well…a beautiful christening of a new ball park…a three game win streak….and the emergence of Nick Johnson and Ryan Zimmerman as the corner pillars of the 2008 campaign.
Nine games later, and nine losses later, the Nats are looking face to face with the down to earth reality that they are truly the 4th or 5th place team in the N.L East and that the new park alone may not launch them over any hump.

Let’s consider then the founding of NatsPark to be the official turning point in the franchise…YOU CAN BE A PART OF HISTORY!

Let’s take a look at the game today:

After an hour and a half rain delay the game looked to be over before the Nats even got an at-bat. A four run Atlanta inning left the Nats with a big deficit early. When you factor the Nats ability to play behind, and that they were facing one of the best starting pitchers of the last two decades, John Smoltz, it was really an unlikely deficit for the team to overcome. Which it was as the Nats didn’t score a run until the Braves had scored their sixth in the fourth inning. The final score was 10-1, but lets face it the game was over at 6-0.

Pitching woes:

John Lannan took a step back today (4IP 9H 6ER 4BB 2K). It was only his 8th career outing however, and if you consider his age and experience, he has put together a good number of quality starts. Oddly enough for the 24 year old Lannan his best starts have come on the road, away from the pitcher friendly RFK and this was his first game at Nats Park. What can we learn from this? Probably nothing, I would place the blame on the poor performance of Lannan on the rain delay and the fact that most young pitchers with his amount of experience haven’t learned to adjust to a delayed start time like that. Warming up, getting ready to go and then having to sit for 91 minutes can throw you off if you are not prepared. Smoltz on the other hand has just a few more starts under his belt…

Expect the young Lannan to have road bumps like these along the way, he is only 24 after all. The good news is young players don’t stay young for long, and we can truly watch him develop before our very eyes into a solid number 2 or 3 starter down the road.

After Lannan was knocked out, Jason Bergman came on to “relieve” him and had about the same amount of success. In two starts this year Bergman has just been plain awful (10.1 IP 16H 13 ER 2BB 10K), and with today’s outing, giving up four runs and two homers in only two innings, it is evident to say he is not comfortable in the bullpen either. This isn’t to say Bergman lost the Nats the game, it was out of hand by the time he got there, but he certainly didn’t keep the score down.

Hitting woes:

The good news is Zimmerman has seemed to bust out of his slump a little bit. He turned things around today going 2/3 with a double to right center and a Sac-Fly scoring Willie Harris after his triple. Leading into today’s game Zimm was 0 for his last 18 with only 1 walk in that span. The Nats need more productive days like today from their young star to compete in the most competitive division in baseball.

Despite my affinity for Felipe Lopez and all the talent he has packed into that small frame, he has not been much of an improvement over tubby Ronny Belliard at second. The Nats need constant production from everyone in their line up with the lack of a big bopper to rake in tons of runs on his own. The Nats drew six walks which is great but they also left 19 runner stranded. On base percentage, a virtue Manny Acta teaches, is meaningless if no one hits those runners in.

Jeff Francoeur woes:

Jeff Francoeur had a day for the Braves…..eight words that pain me to say. Francoeur “The Natural” went 3/5 with two bombs and raked 7 RBI’s. That’s right he drove in more runs then the Nationals did collectively. Francoeur only had 4 RBI’s total coming into the game…

Will the Nationals win their game tomorrow against the Braves and end this 9 game skid? What does Manny Acta have to do, if anything, to turn this team around? Paul Lo Duca, or Jesus Flores? Leave your comments.

Box Score

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